VERSATILE O’SULLIVAN COULD’VE BEEN INFIELDER

When Sean O’Sullivan was a senior at Valhalla High in 2005, he presented an interesting problem to teams considering him as a draft pick.

Some teams viewed him as a pitcher.

Others, including the Padres, viewed him as a third baseman.

“It was sort of split down the middle,” O’Sullivan said. “Half the teams I talked with thought I was a better prospect as a pitcher. The others thought it was as an infielder. And not too many teams had it clear cut one way or another.

“I liked both positions so much that I had a hard time deciding what I’d tell teams interested in drafting me. I didn’t push about one position or another.”

O’Sullivan was raised playing both positions. From the time he was in Little League through one season at Grossmont College in 2006, he played third when he didn’t pitch.

In 2006, just before signing, O’Sullivan hit .405 with seven home runs and 39 RBIs as a third baseman at Grossmont College. He was 7-3 with a 1.87 ERA as a pitcher. He led his conference in hitting and had the second-lowest ERA.

Major league teams weren’t alone in being impressed by O’Sullivan’s ability to hit. Upon being reunited with O’Sullivan this spring at the Padres’ training camp in Arizona, Cameron Maybin remembered O’Sullivan from their days together on teams representing the U.S. in international youth tournaments.

“Maybin told me that O’Sullivan was one of the best hitters he’s been around,” Padres manager Bud Black said.

Even when the Angels picked O’Sullivan in the third round of the 2005 draft, the pitcher/infielder wasn’t sure if he had been drafted as a pitcher or a third baseman.

“I had played on a scout team sponsored by the Angels as both a pitcher and a third baseman,” O’Sullivan said. “When my name first appeared on the screen, there wasn’t a position.”

The Angels had drafted him as a pitcher.

Looking back, does O’Sullivan wish he had been drafted as a third baseman?

“Sometimes when I was struggling, I thought I should switch back to being an infielder,” he said. “But it all happened the way it was supposed to happen.

“Pitching gives you a chance to compete on every pitch. You are 100 percent in the game. But I’ve honestly been waiting for a chance to get to the National League and swing the bat.”

O’Sullivan had only three at-bats in his first seven professional seasons while pitching in American League systems. Given a chance to hit this season for the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate in Tucson, O’Sullivan was hitting .387 (12-for-31) with two doubles, a grand slam and 12 RBIs.

In his first at-bat as a Padre, O’Sullivan drilled a Chad Gaudin fastball off the base of the wall in center field for a double. The best part, he said, was sliding into second.

“I hadn’t slid in eight years,” he said. “It was great.”

In the fifth inning, O’Sullivan essentially pinch-hit for himself.

“(Bud) Black came to me and told me I was out of the game but that I was hitting,” said O’Sullivan, who allowed two runs on six hits over five innings in his Padres debut.